Airports are effective places to embargo pernicious traffic
Highlights of how airports as nodes of transportation (consumers may think bottlenecks is a more apt term) serve as points at which nefarious traffic can be interdicted. Both cases reflect how proper training and constant vigilance are critical to perform these public services.
Monica Phillips, a Houston Airports System Operations Coordinator, benefitted from the Airport’s “Human Trafficking” training. The operator of IAH, HOB, EFD and the Houston Spaceport was first airport system in the country to formally partner with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its Blue Lightning Initiative.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS
“Houston Airports affirms its commitment to using its best efforts to assist in the fight against human trafficking, in accordance with the City of Houston’s zero tolerance policy. We stand in support of the victims of human trafficking, and we assist in the detection and reporting of all suspected human trafficking activities at our airports. We do this through promoting awareness and through coordination with our stakeholders and local and federal authorities.”
Anyone suspecting human trafficking activities or who needs assistance should call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888; TTY:711; text the hotline at 233733; reach out to www.humantraffickinghotline.org/chat; use the hotline’s anonymous online reporting form at https://humantraffickinghotline.org/report-trafficking; or contact the Houston Police Department by calling 911.”
Ms. Phillips’ training included flags that identify people caught in these noxious webs. She connected a suspicious telephone call with a distressed female passenger to save this woman. Part of this successful intervention was the IAH employee’s awareness, instincts and quick coordination with local and federal law enforcement officials.
SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG WOULD BE WELL ADVISED TO STOP BY THIS AIRPORT AND HONOR HER WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION GUARDIAN MEDAL1 OR MORE LIKELY TO ACT WOMEN IN AVIATION INTERNATIONAL SHOULD CONSIDER CREATING AN HONOR FOR MS. PHILLIPS!!!
The next capture of contraband is performed by beagles, a breed of small scent hounds. The article explains the many uses of their highly developed olfactory senses at airports. Their cute noses are extremely effective in ferreting out prohibited food, plants, pork and other injurious meats, invasive species, pests and pathogens carried by passengers in food and plants and prohibited exotic food. The dogs and their handlers are also highly trained. The scene of these smart beasts crawling over suitcases and sniffing passengers is a scene which I have seen, and they are hard, incredibly efficient workers, Treats well-deserved.
Houston Airports employee trusts intuition, steps in to save human trafficking victim
The employee is one of 30,000 badged employees trained by Houston Airports to identify and safely report human trafficking to law enforcement.
June 12, 2023
HOUSTON – A veteran aviation worker, MONICA PHILLIPS first worked for an airline before joining the Airport Operations Communications team for Houston Airports. Trained in working with all types of people in various aviation scenarios, Phillips is now responsible for security and information for Houston Airports. Answering phone calls from customers is part of her job.
“Friday, June 2, I took a call from a man who claimed he was looking for his 52-year-old mother,” said Monica Phillips, Houston Airports Operations Communicator, of the call she received at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. “He said that his mother had boarded a flight in Lubbock, Texas bound for Houston on Sunday, May 28. And that he hadn’t heard from her.”
That was the first red flag.
Phillips was curious as to how worried the son must be for his mother, if he waited five days to call Bush Airport. Phillips transferred the caller to the Houston Police Department, which has an office at the 4-Star Skytrax airport. When Phillips followed up with the police officer, she was baffled. The caller refused to file a missing person’s report with police.
That was the second red flag.
“I knew something wasn’t right about his story,” recalled Phillips. “I had this gut feeling that this was a case of human trafficking.”
Houston Airports is ready to welcome more than 13 million passengers to its airports this summer. Approximately 134,000 passengers are expected to walk through Bush Airport each day between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
It’s sometimes said that HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS AN “INVISIBLE CRIME” because its signs are not always obvious to the untrained eye. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, criminals also tend to travel with their victims during holidays – when more people are on the roads or at airports, because it’s easier to blend into the crowd.
Sunday, May 28 was the day before Memorial Day, a busy holiday travel weekend.
Phillips arrived at work earlier on Wednesday, June 7. As she crossed the ticketing lobby of Terminal A at Bush Airport, Phillips said she spotted a woman who was struggling to communicate with Houston police. Phillips had a gut feeling it was the woman the caller had been searching for earlier in the month.
The woman, who only spoke Hungarian, struggled to communicate with police. Phillips leaned on translation technology and asked if the woman’s name was the name shared by the caller. She said, yes. Phillips explained to the woman that her son had called looking for her. When the woman didn’t recognize the son’s name Houston Police called back the number. Because the man had called Bush Airport, the call data was logged. The phone number, Phillips said, had been disconnected.
That was the third red flag.
“I have a friend with United Airlines who speaks Hungarian. We got him involved to translate. What we gathered from her story was, she traveled from Lubbock to Houston with two men on May 28. The trio was ultimately bound for Europe. When they landed at Bush Airport, she got away and was hiding in the terminals,” said Phillips. “I can’t begin to imagine how scared she was. To be in a new city, unable to speak English, hiding for your life in an unfamiliar airport.”
Houston Police alerted CBP Officers to the unfolding investigation. Law enforcement learned the two men had the 52-year-old’s passport. She checked a bag in Lubbock but didn’t recover it. She had traveled with a purse, but in her rush to flee, she lost it at the airport. Phillips said the purse was turned in to airport Lost and Found and later returned to the woman.
“CBP officers took her to a Houston-area hospital, because she was in bad shape,” said Phillips. “Ten days of hiding in an airport – with no real food – she needed medical attention.”
Phillips said the woman did not want to tell the interpreter what she had experienced. “But I do know law enforcement is now investigating and are classifying her as a victim of human trafficking,” said Phillips.
Phillips believes the woman spent days hiding in the airport’s restrooms. Phillips doesn’t know what happened to her after the woman was seen by doctors. The Houston Airports employee is praying for the best.
“I sometimes have a gut feeling about things, and it turns out to be correct. I just knew this lady needed help,” said Phillips. “Who wants to hide in an airport terminal while fearing for her life.”
Federal statistics reflect that 70% OF VICTIMS ARE TRAFFICKED THROUGH AIRPORTS.
What is human trafficking? | Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. It can happen in any community and victims can be any age, race, gender or nationality.
Traffickers might use | violence, manipulation, false promises of well-paying jobs or romantic relationships to lure victims into trafficking situations.
People targeted by traffickers | Those with psychological or emotional vulnerabilities, economic hardship, lack of a social safety net, victims of natural disasters and/or political instability
“This isn’t a crime exclusive too far off places,” said Saba Abashawl, Houston Airports Chief External Affairs Officer. “Our hearts and prayers are with victims. Rescues like the one that happened at Bush Airport this week are why Houston Airports is committed to doing everything it can to help end human trafficking.”
In October 2019, Houston Airports became the first airport system in the country to formally partner with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its Blue Lightning Initiative. Through the initiative, Houston Airports has trained more than 30,000 badged airport employees on how to identify and safely report human trafficking. The training continues.
The commitment of Houston Airports to end human trafficking is why Houston Airports organized and hosted a panel discussion for 450 community members in November 2022.
“If you have someone that doesn’t speak the language and is from a different culture and is sitting in the terminal, to me that’s a huge red flag,” said Phillips. “I would like to help the whole world. I KNOW IT’S NOT ALWAYS POSSIBLE, BUT IF WE LEAN INTO OUR TRAINING AND TRUST OUR INTUITION, WE JUST MIGHT SAVE A LIFE.”
Recognizing key indicators of human trafficking is the first step in identifying victims.
Click here for more information and resources for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
RELATED: Houston Signs Agreement with Federal Agencies to Combat and Eradicate Human Trafficking
RELATED: City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence
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How the ‘Beagle Brigade’ is keeping America safe at nation’s airports
by DUANE POHLMAN | Spotlight on America
Mon, July 17th 2023, 11:16 AM EDT
CHICAGO (TND) — Inside Terminal 5 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, thousands of passengers arrive on flights from around the world. Once people clear customs, they’re greeted by a 6-year-old, fast-moving beagle named Bettie. “Bettie Boop!” exclaims Customs and Border Protection (CBP) specialist Jessica Anderson, as she begins to laugh.
THE BEAGLE BRIGADE
Anderson and Bettie are a top team in CBP’s one-breed canine program dubbed the “Beagle Brigade.” “The Beagle Brigade started back in the 80s,” Anderson said. The beagle brigade? “That’s what they originally called it,” she said. The title stuck and continues to this day. One-hundred seventeen beagles make up the brigade, assigned to airports across the country, guarding against invasive species, pests and pathogens carried by passengers in food and plants they bring with them from overseas.
Spotlight on America asked Anderson, “how important are beagles to what we’re doing to protect America?” “I think they’re incredibly important!” she replied. Bettie is one of America’s best beagles, chalking up 2,872 seizures of food, plants, and other agricultural items in just eight months, from October 2022 to May 2023. Her seizure rate that places her in second place among beagles across the country.
BEAGLE BRIGADE STATS AT O’HARE
BEAGLES RULE THE AISLES
At the International Mail Facility near O’Hare, where freight from around the world arrives, dogs like a Labrador named CiCi command the conveyer belts, sniffing out food inside cardboard boxes and other containers. But, inside international terminals, where dogs are in close proximity to people, beagles like Bettie rule. In the 80s, the beagles were originally picked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to patrol amongst people because of their friendly looks. Cute, cuddly and welcoming,” Anderson said.
PROTECTING AMERICA FROM DEADLY THREATS
The furry, friendly faces of beagles like Bettie disguise a serious mission: PROTECTING AMERICA FROM PESTS AND PATHOGENS THAT COULD WIPE OUT CROPS AND ANIMALS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. Today, Bettie and the brigade are focused on TWO SERIOUS THREATS to America: avian influenza, which has already killed 43 million hens worldwide, causing egg prices to skyrocket in January, and; African swine fever, which wiped out near a quarter of the world’s pig population.
To protect against avian influenza, anything connected to chickens and other birds that has not been approved by CPB is being confiscated. The haul includes chicken meat and more exotic items, like birds’ nests, used to make birds nest soup, a Chinese delicacy that’s full of bird saliva. Protecting against African swine fever means preventing passengers from bringing any pork products with them, whether it’s a sandwich or sausage they packed away.
One day at O’Hare, Bettie sniffed out several sausages, including a link packed inside a suitcase of a teacher who had just arrived.” Could you get that sausage out for me, please?” Anderson asked the teacher calmly. She let her know that it isn’t allowed. And as Bettie patrolled the aisles, she signaled sausage inside a duty-free bag. The woman who had it in her cart explained she bought it at a foreign airport to bring back to the U.S. “Yeah,” Specialist Anderson said, explaining, “It’s not permitted.”
EXOTIC THREATS
While the beagles are trained to sniff out pork, other meats and fruits, they constantly find more exotic food, like black chunks of cow skin that were seized from another passenger.
Also confiscated, an entire leg of a wild animal with the hoof still attached. And CBP officers still don’t know what animal produced another cut of meat they seized. “Whenever we see bones like that, that’s a good indicator that it’s not allowed,” Anderson said.
BIG NUMBERS, BIG SUCCESS
According to CBP, in just nine months from October 2022 to June 2023, 118,308 international passengers faced agricultural inspections caused by the noses of K9s, with 98,253 plants, 39,086 animal products and 9,166 miscellaneous products seized. And playing a major role in the successful seizures are a brigade of beagles like Bettie, who has the heart of her partner. “Oh! I love her.” Anderson said, as she handed Bettie another treat for a job well done.
